On the eve of training camp beginning, Bengals owner Mike Brown and de facto general manager Duke Tobin spoke to the media. To no surprise, the status of the ongoing contract standoffs with Trey Hendrickson and first-round rookie Shemar Stewart were a main topic of discussion. 
Hendrickson has been among the numerous high-profile edge rushers seeking a new deal this offseason. Some – including T.J. Watt, Myles Garrett and Maxx Crosby – have inked lucrative extensions while others are still in negotiations. Contract talks with Hendrickson’s camp have been on and off, and with camp looming an artificial deadline exists for an agreement to be reached.
“I’m not going to go into details of negotiation but I think we’re in a good spot and hopefully something is done soon,” Brown said when speaking about the Hendrickson situation (via Jay Morrison of Sports Illustrated). The reigning sack leader is not expected to have an agreement in place by the start of camp this week, and a holdout lasting into the regular season has been on the table for some time.
Unlike last offseason, the Bengals granted Hendrickson permission to seek a trade amidst contract talks. Offers came in but did not reach the team’s asking price. Cincinnati has not yet submitted a known offer averaging $35MM per year (a figure which would now rank fifth amongst pass rushers in the wake of Watt’s new Steelers accord). The team reportedly prefers a one-year extension which would keep the 30-year-old in place through 2026, whereas Hendrickson is seeking longer term on his third career contract. It will be interesting to see if Brown’s optimistic tone winds up being a sign that a deal is close.
On the Stewart front, meanwhile, little if anything has changed. The Texas A&M product did not report with the team’s other rookies to training camp, something which comes as no surprise given his absence from on-field work during the spring. The heart of the issue between Stewart and the Bengals remains contract language which would void all remaining guarantees on his deal in the event of an off-field issue. Historically, the team has not used such language and Stewart continues to hold out for a pact matching the ones signed by Cincinnati’s two most recent first-round picks.
“I’m not going to blame Shemar,” Tobin said (via The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr.) in relation to the stance taken by agent Zac Hiller. “He is listening to the advice he is paying for. I don’t understand or believe or agree with the advice but I’m not the one paying for it. If I felt we were treating him unfairly as it relates to all the other draft picks in this year’s draft then maybe it would be a different story. But we are not. I don’t really understand where things are there.”
Hiller responded by informing Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio that Tobin has not been involved in contract talks with Stewart. As animosity between team and player continues, ESPN’s Ben Baby reports the percentage of second-round pick Demetrius Knight‘s signing bonus being paid up front – something which was no doubt a factor in an agreement being reached – has not yet been offered to Stewart. Neither side appears willing to budge at this point with padded practices set to commence.
In 2025, the Bengals will aim to return to the postseason with an offense widely seen as being among the league’s best. Their defense remains a question mark entering the campaign, though, and the unit will no doubt remain the subject of scrutiny until deals with Hendrickson and Stewart are complete.
Trey should go w/ the 1 year deal topping Watt. Then be a FA agent next offseason. Add in a ‘no tag’ clause as well.
That’s a huge risk for a 30 year old football player looking for his last big extension. They haven’t even offered $35 on that one year extension. He would be 32 as a FA which would limit his years on a new deal, and if he gets hurt it would also cost him AAV too. He went more team friendly on his last bengals extensions and outperformed it by a lot. The bengals should treat him as well as they did their offensive weapons
I agree w/ you, but it’s a 2 way street. Trey can do the ‘hold in’ deal and get paid, then have the magical ‘pulled hammy’ for the entire season as well.
Bungles messed this up. Not the player’s responsibility to fix management’s errors.
No. They don’t owe him an extension. He signed the dealers currently tied to. He can play out his contract and become a free agent. If other teams don’t offer him what he wants in free agency, why should the Bengals do so now if they expect those results ?
He can sit for 6 some odd weeks, then show up for accrued time to get out of his contract as well.
But why would a good to great FA want to go to Cinny? It’s a bigger picture than just Trey’s deal.
The whole “play out your contract” is a tiresome argument
Do teams honor contracts they sign?
No. They cut guys before contracts are up all the time
They approach guys about restricting their deals to create cap room every off season
I don’t see you demanding teams to honor contracts they agreed too so it’s strange you expect players to.
If teams can cut guys before contracts are up due to poor performance players can demand new contracts if they outperform their current one.
The facts are that most NFL teams operate at, Or very close to the Cap. So I’m quite sure that the Bengals thought they had Hendrickson for 1 more reasonable year and then drafted Stewart, I’m assuming to take his place after that. In no other sport can you draft a guy to immediately take somebodies place like that. On the other hand why you would screw with BOTH of them and have nobody is a whole different mystery. I can see it from both sides because in no other sport does getting certain injuries probably end your career. But from a team planning standpoint when you’re trying to figure out how to blend 90 salaries and make it work out when the 90 you have are now not suddenly cast in stone. Every coin has two sides. The agents need to negotiate better contracts on behalf of what their clients really want or need. The players need to hold the agents accountable and pay them based on the ” Guaranteed ” money they negotiate instead of the whole contract which I’m guessing is also part of the problem. A 150 million dollar deal sounds cool until you read the fine print and see that 20 million is guaranteed. But the Bengals are in a whole new chapter of stupidity here.
If you don’t hold up to your end at work you get fired too lol. It’s not tiresome. Sign the contract play it out to the standard of play in which was agreed. Drop in skill or attitude and you get cut. It’s no different than working for UPS, US Steel, Verizon, or whatever company you’d like to fill the blank with.
How is being the sack leader not holding up Trey’s end of the deal? He has something like 34 sacks over the past 2 years. He more than lived up to his contract. Bengals ownership needs to acknowledge that, but refuse too.
In corporate, if you outwork your contract/salary; you get raises, bonuses, and/or promotions. Same deal.
I never said Trey did. I’m speaking just in overall terms.
If I underperform in the real world I get fired sure
But if I outperform in the real world I get pay raises, promotions and if I don’t I can explore looking for a new job with a higher pay better benefits etc and sign with a new company if I choose to do so.
It is tiresome.
You people constantly attack the players for not honoring contracts but don’t ever attack owners GMs front office for not honoring contracts.
Someone asked yesterday on a different thread why players fake injuries.
This is why. He’s grossly underpaid today, the market shifted in his favor and he stands to benefit. Why shouldn’t he ask to have his contract re-negogiated?
Again…your advocating paying him future dollars for past achievements which he’s already been paid for….bad business.
“I’m not going to go into details of negotiation but I think we’re in a good spot and hopefully something is done soon,” Brown said when speaking about the Hendrickson situation.
Really? Most teams don’t consider having your best defensive player AWOL to be a good spot.
On a bottom 1/3 D no less. P..s poor management.
His choice. He’s under contract. What he wants versus what his colorant contract is so not have to be the same.
Tired statement. Should Josh Allen or Watt not have signed a new deal this offseason because they were under contacts? Same for all the other players that re-upped while under contract.
In the World of 2025 NFL contracts, The key is and will from now on be “Guaranteed Money”. I guarantee that if your last year of guaranteed money is coming up you’ll probably be gone or have your deal re-negotiated at that point with some very limited exceptions. But when you signed it you had to know that so the whole play out your contract thing makes sense. The fact is you knew it, Or at the very least SHOULD HAVE known that, The day you signed it. If you wanted o be a FA in 2025 you should have dropped the last year of your NON GUARANTEED deal or negotiated it that way. Fact is if your last year is non guaranteed you really have no contract. Part of this is on the greedy agents who I’m sure get their cut OF THE TOTAL DEAL, Not the GUARANTEED part. If you as a player make that change in your agent, I’m sure the players would be getting the representation they really want. It needs to be worked out. As far as the Stewart deal goes I really don’t understand it at all. It’s almost like the Bengals are saying they EXPECT Stewart to end up in jail at some point. If they truly believed that, Then why oh why would you draft him in the first place? These deals were negotiated in the CBA to be idiot proof, But obviously nobody counted on the Bengals.
They plan on outscoring everyone, which didn’t work out well last year. Incoming 9-8 season.
This is just so stupid. First world issues.
Most things are first world issues, so who cares?
Well that’s a first world answer.
Yes, we’re in a first-world country and you actually get paid here. How is that an issue for you?
Calling things first world issues is a first world thing to do.
Well, we are talking about an entertainment product in a first world country.
Sorry if I don’t have a lot of care for billionaires arguing with millionaires.
Yes you do. You absolutely care, which is why you’re here lecturing people.
Me comment is a lecture?
Commenting does not equal care, but hey, you do you cupcake.
You did seem to care about the issue first by fixating on a grown professional athlete’s paycheck and making it a “first-world problem” thing.
Again, because I comment doesn’t mean I care. Not sure why people can’t grasp that fact. Again…do you.
Calling people cupcake is beyond tryhard.
You clearly do care or you wouldn’t comment so much.
Calling people tryhard is something a 14 year old says. You continuously trying to argue is something a 14 year old does. 🤷🏻♂️ Are we done yet?
No, it’s something somebody who laughs at people grandstanding on the internet says.
You’re the one arguing with everybody and trying oh so hard to be controversial.
Yeah we get it. You’re so rebellious and unique.
My take is this….if Trey is under contract, honor it! I get why he wants a bigger contract, but honor what you signed…
As for Stewart, Bengals are the ones playing hard ball because they know Stewart has no leg to stand on….he will eventually have to sign if he wants to be a professional football player…
Bengals rate as A one @#$%
I see you did not read Arty’s comment about “honor the contract” you signed. As for Stewart you are wrong. He has the option to sit out the entire season (I do not think this happens but it is an option) and enter next years draft. Should that happen it is a lose/lose for him and the team but moreso for the team as they will have wasted a first round pick on a player that they cannot draft again. This is not MLB where if you fail to sign your first rd pick you get a first rd comp pick in the following draft.
Every team brings around 90 players to training camp. Every single player is under contract. Then the teams cut players until they’re left 53 on the roster. Where is the honor of the franchises for those 40 some odd players?
There is no correlation between nfl contracts and the average person.
There are thousands of people who deal with these contracts as their own job.
It is not some simple all in one , honor this or that.
It is complex.
Yes players can get cut, before their deal has ended.
Yes, many players get signing bonus % that are FAR more than the average person.
I would say an average person rarely has seen a signing bonus.
It is an incentive to sign and hopefully complete your deal.
Yes, many players receive guarantees.
If a team cuts player in year two of a four year contract, the team might have already paid a bonus, and still obligated to pay the guarantee.
This easy morality play preaching , here in these comments is absurd.
Totally on Bengals side of this with Stewart. It’s no different than what half the league has in their contracts. Let him sit and go back into the draft and be a 4th rounder next year
If only half the league has the contract language they’re fighting over, why is Stewart wrong for demanding that his contract reflect the language of the other half? It’s not like he’s out there demanding his contract be something that hasn’t always been prevalent. The NFL keeps forcing this language down the throats of rookies who have practically no bargaining power based on the way the NFL has set the rules for them, and the more players that concede to this player-unfriendly language, the more that team owners (and people like you for some bizarre reason) use that as an excuse to keep trying to shove it down more player’s throats.
I have not read the exact clause, but the captioning provided by many outlets is pretty common in general. If you break the law or do something so out line causing damage to the reputation of the team, we reserve the right to cancel your contract. Many C-Level people in the real world have these clauses in their Employment Agreements, often known as “Morality Clauses”. Almost all major employers have this language in every HR document signed by every employee as well. This is not “new”, it’s just new to the Bengals and every team should have this language in every contract signed, especially with the amount of bad press and damage to the brand created by a player when these events take place. We are not talking chump change here, we are speaking of millions of dollars.
Every NFL team should EXPECT their employees to abide by the laws of the land. This is not some conspiracy by billionaires to screw millionaires. It common sense practice that is finally making its way into contracts that should have been there since day one of contracts being written.
Good for the Bengals for standing their ground. Do what you are supposed to do and you won’t have a problem, plain and simple. I’m paying you to be a football player and a good citizen, not a football player and a criminal.
Okay, here’s the problem with your entire opinion on this matter- You. Have. Not. Read. The. Entire. Clause. And yet, you are making opinions on what the player and agent should be doing… even though they have, in fact, read the entire clause.
You should read it. As I’ve pointed out on other posts, the contract language isn’t just “don’t hit women or use PEDs.” There’s all kinds of ambiguous language in there that deals with being critical of the team in the press or on social media. It leaves all kinds of room for open interpretation by the team and the team alone. The only reason for it is to be able to wiggle out of a contract if, for any reason, they don’t want to be in it anymore and owe guaranteed money.
Also, as you pointed out… it’s not language that’s in all contracts for all teams for all players, so there’s nothing wrong with a player saying they don’t want it included in theirs, especially when it’s entirely to the benefit of the team and not at all to the player.
Read the contract language. If you can’t be bothered to do that, then don’t bother to state opinions on what the player should do.
“In the event Player fails or refuses to report to Club, fails or refuses to practice or play with Club (other than for an NFL football-related injury sustained while performing his services under this Contract), but specifically including but not limited to failure to perform due to incarceration (unless such incarceration is less than 72 hours and Player does not miss a game), death, injury incurred as a result of engaging in a non-football related activity, or if Player leaves Club without its consent, or if Player retires, or if Player is suspended by NFL or Club for Conduct Detrimental (other than a suspension of no more than three games for violating the NFL Playing Rules), or if Player is suspended for violating the NFL Personal Conduct Policy, or if Player is suspended for violating the NFL Policy on Performance Enhancing Substances, or if Player is suspended for violating the NFL Policy and Program for Substances of Abuse, or the NFL Gambling Policy or if Player makes any public comment, including but not limited to the newspaper, magazines, television, radio, social media or internet that breaches Player’s obligation of loyalty to Club and/or undermines the public’s respect for the Club, Club coaches, or Club management (provided that upon the first such comment Player shall receive a written warning and upon the second and any other subsequent comment, Player shall be in default of this Guarantee) or if Player otherwise materially breaches any provision of this Contract, then Player shall be in default (‘Default’). If Player is in Default, this Guarantee shall immediately be deemed null and void from the beginning and in its entirety regardless of whether or not the Guarantee had otherwise been earned according to its terms at the time of Player’s Default. In the event of such Default, Player will be entitled to earn the remaining Paragraph 5 salary on a non-guaranteed basis subject to any applicable fines and/or forfeitures.”
Let me add to my comment. Be a football player, not a criminal, and not an idiot who publicly denounces the people that cut your paychecks.
My opinion stands and the language was exactly what I anticipated.
The NFL is a private organization and playing in the NFL is a privilege. Funny how anybody thinks otherwise.
Same language in every day jobs out there. Go ahead and start bashing your own company on Social Media and see how well that goes for your employment status.
Maybe you didn’t read it. They will actually give a warning first. In my humble opinion, your contract should be your warning.
You have a problem with your bosses, take it up with your agent.
You don’t like the contract, don’t sign it. It’s really that simple.
You want a Free Pass to be an idiot and try to us “public opinion” to fight your battles, then go get a job in politics, not the NFL. It’s really that simple.
An attorneys job is to protect their client and what this contract does is precisely that. It protects the organization from players bad-mouthing the leadership of the organization in a public forum. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that and nearly every Fortune 1000 company has similar language.
This entire concept that players should be allowed to say whatever they want in regards to their employer is completely ridiculous.
The fact he is fighting for this language to be removed should be enough for any team to want to pass on the kid.
That, or the agent is simply trying to squeeze more juice on the upfront money and trying to use the language as leverage, which is much more likely.
I would be willing to wager he signs the contract with the current language as is. He may get a few more dollars upfront just to move on and get on the field and not waste a first round pick, but highly doubt the language changes.
In addition, go ahead and sit out for a year and hope you get drafted again next year (and hope to God that the rest of the teams don’t get smart and add this same language to all of their contracts next year in the process – because that’s what’s coming).
What a disingenuous response. You (and others on this site) keep saying the language is specific to violence and PEDs, and yet half of that language addresses something completely else, like criticizing the team on social media or to the press (which by the way they’re required to talk to), so, no, it’s not like you said at all, and to pretend it was is either delusional or deceptive.
If you’re an employee and you’ve got guaranteed money in your contract (“guaranteed”), then that shouldn’t be taken away because you are critical of the team… especially when it’s up to the team owner to decide what qualifies for penalty. If the owner wants to fire the player after criticizing the team, fine, that’s their prerogative, but that shouldn’t allow them to squirm out of paying guarantees… literal guarantees. That’s a bunch of b.s. and definitely worth fighting against. Guarantees, as if the word means nothing.
Also, you’re wrong… playing in the NFL is not a privilege, it’s a job. The idea that the players should just accede to whatever demands team owners want to put in place is ludicrous. If it’s a privilege to play in the NFL, then it should also be viewed as a privilege to own an NFL team… but team owners, instead, treat it like an entitlement, and for some reason, there are some very odd people who would side with them.
Also, the NFL is not like just any job. People making this comparison seem to lack any kind of clarity on this, which is bizarre. In normal jobs, you aren’t drafted into the position, where you don’t get to choose where you want to work, and where salaries are locked in, and where you don’t have the option to walk away and find work elsewhere in the field. If team owners want to dictate the language in these contracts, then get rid of the draft. Let players choose which teams they want to play for and for the teams that offer the best contract terms. It’s a huge power imbalance, and if the NFL had to operate under the constraints of the free market- like any other normal job- then they’d lose a lot of the power the current structure gifts them.
And, hey, you’re not some kind of genius for predicting Stewart will sign. OF COURSE he’s going to sign, even if he’s forced to swallow the Bengals contract language. Because drafted players have no power coming into the league. There is no free market of capitalism with their job. They can either eat the crap the teams feed them or they can walk away from the profession they’ve been working toward all of their life. Your response acknowledges this, and the fact that you would still be on the side of the team owners is pretty gross.
I just posted the exact language so not exactly sure what you are referencing here.
Your hatred of money and those that have is the ironic side of your argument. You hate the families that have spent generations building wealth and putting in countless hours to purchase an NFL team. You hate the system that allows these athletes to get free education in college to play a sport. He hate the system and all the hard work put in to build a league that provides these athletes the “opportunity” to make life changing money from day one in their “careers”.
You simply want to forget everything it took for this league to get where it is today to allow for all these niceties in life to occur and change it on the drop of a dime.
That’s not how it works my friend, nor will that ever be how it works.
Have you ever owned a company? Ever been responsible for the lives and families of many employees?
Ever had a brand new guy in the company stand in your office and tell you all the things you need to change about the company you spent years building (because they have it all figured out on day one)?
Rookie contracts are the way they are for a multitude of reasons, most of which the average fan cannot even start to comprehend, and years of years of negotiations from players and the players union.
Let it sink in. 👍
lol what a belligerent response. It’s amazing how your response is all over the place and yet nowhere close to the topic of discussion.
Dueling incoming train wrecks in the state between Cleveland and Cincinnati.